The present invention relates to improved protective headwear for use with a hair dryer, particularly with a hood hair dryer of the type used in a beauty salon.
Patrons of beauty salons often feel discomfort when under a hair dryer. Complaints frequently focus on excessive heat on the forehead and on ears, eyes and nose discomfort.
Utility U.S. Pat. No. 4,133,052 discloses protective headgear having a transparent visor to cover the wearer""s eyes and nose, earflaps to cover the ears, and an insulated middle segment which extends across the forehead. Tie members connected to the middle segment extend around the back of the head to hold the headgear on the head of the wearer. The headgear is said to protect the wearer from heat-induced discomfort which otherwise might be caused by a hair dryer. The device is reusable and thus is not disposable.
Examples of other protective headgear are shown in design Pats. Nos. 250,296 and 315,224, and in Utility Pat. No. 4,704,744.
The present invention relates to protective headwear for use under a hair dryer. The headwear is disposable. The headwear comprises a strap which extends across the forehead of the wearer. A visor is attached to the bottom of the strap and covers and protects the eyes and nose of the wearer. The visor is made of a rigid material such as plastic or cardboard, and is curved to conform to the forehead of the wearer. A pair of earpieces are connected to opposite sides of the forehead strap by means of elastic connectors. Each earpiece has an elongated rigid inner section and a bendable end section which extends around an ear of the wearer. Flaps are attached to and hang down from the rigid inner section to cover the ears. The bendable end sections are readily bent to conform to the ears of the wearer and hold the headwear on the wearer similar to the earpieces of a pair of glasses. As the earpieces are connected to the forehead strap by elastic connectors, the headwear can easily be adapted to fit the head of any wearer. This makes the headwear of the present invention disposable. All of the components of the headwear are readily available commercial materials, and the assembly of the headwear is simple, so that the headwear of the present invention is inexpensive enough that it is disposable for this reason as well.
In an embodiment of the present invention, the elastic attached to the earpieces extends all the way across the forehead of the wearer from earpiece to earpiece. In the area of the visor, the elastic is covered with fabric to protect the wearer from heat absorbed by the elastic. The visor is fan shaped, so that when the headgear is placed over a very wide head, the visor expands as well as the elastic between the earpieces.